Rose was wrong and the Davises got what they wished for on the final play of Game 2 last night, a wide-open jumper by Patrick Ewing that, improbably, the Knicks were able to get off in the first place. With Antonio Davis off to the side on the floor, Ewing’s 15-footer went a little strong and crashed into the back rim and the Pacers exhaled with an 88-86 victory that evened the Eastern Conference Finals at one game apiece.

Reggie Miller, with :02 on the clock, had put the Pacers ahead with two free throws. The Knicks, out of timeouts, had set up a play in the confusion resulting from the foul call that sent Miller to the line.

“One of our plays,” Mark Jackson said.

This was right out of the Duke play book. But instead of Grant Hill to Christian Laettner, it was Charlie Ward to Ewing. Unlike Laettner, Ewing missed.

“I thought overtime,” Rose claimed. “I mean how many times in his career has he made shots like that.”

About as many times as he has missed.

Ward’s pass from under the Pacer basket down to the opposite foul line was completed only with the help of a clever shove by Ewing on Antonio Davis.

“He pushed off and got a good look,” Larry Bird assessed.

Davis, though, worried only about a potential foul.

“At that point, I didn’t want to reach back and grab him,” said AD, who was huge off the bench with nine points and 11 rebounds. “I knew they would call a foul on me. I just tried to make sure that once he pushed me, I tried to let the refs know that he did push me.

“It wasn’t a thing where I wasn’t in position,” said Davis, who was stationed in front of Ewing, “or I wasn’t playing aggressive. That’s one of those things where you just hope the ref makes the call. If he doesn’t, you have to live with it.”